The story of Süddeutsche Elektromotorenwerke (SEW) starts with four people – an ingenious engineer, a bold and entrepreneurial couple, and their daughter. Over the decades, thousands of others have followed in their footsteps. It is these people who have collectively made the company what it is today – one of the world's leading suppliers of drive and automation technology. Find out more about the people behind the machines and their ideas for driving the future.
The master precision mechanic, who had learned his trade for electric motors in the USA, opened a small repair workshop in Bruchsal in 1913. This became Albert Obermoser AG, which, however, ran into financial difficulties as a result of the difficult post-war years. Obermoser had to sell his company to an industrial group, which also began to falter. However, the bank sees future opportunities for Obermoser AG and plans an overhaul. By this time, he has already left Albert Obermoser AG and continues his entrepreneurship with Albert Obermoser KG.
In 1927, the banker Christian Pähr is commissioned to restructure Albert Obermoser AG. When Obermoser left his former company and founded Albert Obermoser KG at the same time, Christian Pähr initially continued to manage the AG of the same name. On June 13, 1931, he took over the manufacturing rights and founded his own company, Süddeutsche Elektromotorenwerke. He died just four years later in 1935 at the age of 70.
Establishment of SEW on June 13, 1931
Despite its pioneering technology, Albert Obermoser AG found itself in financial difficulty in 1929 due to the Great Depression. Banker Christian Pähr acquired the bankrupt estate and founded Süddeutsche Elektromotorenwerke SEW on June 13, 1931. This picture shows the workforce. Shortly after the company's founding, the staff grew to 35 employees.
Typical of the time – the name and quality seal of the new company
Although the company was founded at the worst possible time, it survived the Great Depression and grew. As the Director of SEW, Christian Pähr earned 441 Reichsmarks per month, while the monthly salaries and wages of his employees ranged between 24 and 199 Reichsmarks.
The daughter of the company's founder helped her mother run SEW after his untimely death and was appointed an authorized signatory in 1941. She married army officer Ernst Blickle in 1942.
After a brief period as a prisoner of war, Ernst Blickle returned to Bruchsal. When his mother-in-law died in December 1945, he took over the management of SEW. As a visionary, Blickle was quick to realize the potential of the technology and set about acquiring the expertise he would need. He consistently leveraged both to grow his company.
Rainer Blickle, who was active and based in Brazil for SEW, returns home after the death of his father. As Managing Partner, he is responsible in particular for the markets and subsidiaries in India, South America, and Europe. Unlike many other companies at the time, he remained at his traditional location in Germany and at the company headquarters in Bruchsal, where he gradually invested in new buildings and production halls. By the time he left the company management in 2013, the first electronics production facility, the Ernst Blickle Innovation Center (EBIC), the DriveAcademy®, the Plant for Large Gear Units, and many other plants around the world had been built in Bruchsal. He died on March 3, 2021 at the age of 73.
Jürgen Blickle has been successfully managing the company's fortunes as sole managing partner for over 10 years. Mourning and celebratory moments often go hand in hand. Following the death of his brother Rainer at the beginning of March 2021, Jürgen Blickle celebrated two milestone anniversaries in the summer of 2021: his 70th birthday and the 90th anniversary of SEW-EURODRIVE. Following the family tradition, Jürgen Blickle is also committed to Germany as a location. The new south and north plant halls in Graben-Neudorf, the new electronics production facility, large parking garages for employees in Bruchsal and Graben, a company daycare center, the infrastructure center, and measures still under construction or in the planning stage are clear testimony to this.
In the early 1920s, factory halls were dominated by drives with transmission belts. Not only was the noise level correspondingly high, but also the risk of injury. Not to mention the high energy requirements. A pioneering invention by Albert Obermoser, patented in 1928, finally offered an alternative to these drive belts. The drive unit, which Obermoser called a “Gearmotor”, couples the motor to the gearbox - a spur gear. The advantage: the solution is compact and space-saving, runs much more quietly and precisely and also saves energy.
SEW-EURODRIVE's most groundbreaking invention in the field of drive technology came in the mid-1960s: The modular system for gearmotors is still one of the most important pillars of the company's success today. A manageable number of standardized individual parts and component groups form the basis for countless possible combinations for every customer requirement. Quick assembly and fast delivery give SEW-EURODRIVE an important competitive advantage.
When SEW-EURODRIVE took over Albert Obermoser KG in 1973, new motors, motor types, and corresponding accessories were added to the portfolio. They included V-belt and friction-wheel variable-speed gearmotors, clutches, brakemotors, DC motors, power converters, and additional electrical components.
At HANNOVER MESSE 1977, the company also presents another invention: the bevel gear unit with its high degree of efficiency now enables use with greater power and is significantly quieter than previous gearbox designs.
At the beginning of the 1980s, PCs conquered the offices of developers and designers. With the onset of the CAD boom, the design of drives also became much easier and faster. In the 1980s, electronics not only found its way into the office, but also into drive technology, heralding the start of industrial automation. At SEW-EURODRIVE, too, frequency inverters now control the geared motors. Electronic controls are not long in coming.
Ernst Blickle decides to develop and manufacture the drive electronics himself at SEW-EURODRIVE instead of buying them in. In 1991, the decision is made to set up a new plant for electronics production in Bruchsal. The overall concept developed by the company in the following years sets standards in drive technology. This also included low-backlash gearboxes and servo motors, which were added to the product range in the 1990s.
It is not far from the MOVIMOT® decentralized drive to the first drive unit that combines motor, gear unit and inverter in one housing. With the MOVIGEAR® - also presented at Hannover Messe - mechatronics entered drive technology in 2005. In 2011, the electronic motor (motor and inverter in one unit) was added based on the MOVIGEAR®.
Two years after MOVIGEAR®, SEW-EURODRIVE impressively demonstrates at the Hannover Messe that the company can also produce a pioneering industrial gear unit platform itself - as usual, also based on the drive specialist's proven modular principle. In order to meet the increasing demand for these gear units, a new production plant for large gear units is being built in Bruchsal.
Even today, SEW-EURODRIVE's proven modular principle is proving to be forward-looking. With MOVI-C®, the company has succeeded in making the generational transition to a coordinated complete program of drive technology, inverters, control technology including engineering software and pre-programmed software modules. The first electronics plant, completed in 1999, has long been bursting at the seams. A new building in Bruchsal is therefore unavoidable in 2017.
SEW-EURODRIVE is developing a new industrial gear unit platform based on its P series and proven components to better serve applications such as drum dryers or chipboard presses in the future. The particularly compact coaxial planetary gear unit enables high speeds as well as unprecedented performance and thermal limiting power in a small space.
Gearmotor
Sectional drawing of a gearmotor from the 1960s. It could be connected with various gear units to suit requirements. Move the slider to explore inside the gearmotor.
The factory of the future is smart and lean – innovative transport and assistance systems
They are mobile and scalable, autonomous or track-guided – components from the fully comprehensive system solution of our MAXOLUTION® brand for the lean smart factory of the 21st century. Innovative hardware and software based on our tried-and-tested modular technology system.
Which innovations will be driving us in the future?
More than 550 people from all round the world work in research and development at the Ernst Blickle Innovation Center. Their common goal is to develop new ideas, products, and technologies for the drive technology and drive automation of the future.